Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-05-13
ON THE GOLD COAST.
A LANDING AT ACCRA IN SPITE OF
GRAVE DIFFICULTIES.


GRAVE DIFFICULTIES.
A Bit of West African Scenery-PuIIine
for the Shore in "A Native Surf Boat-A
Fight with Furious waves-Ashore at
Last.
With our usual good luck we pass during
the night the only bit of scenery worth look
ing at on this part of the coast-viz., the high
land near Cape Coast castle, u seasonable,
although momentary, relief to the dreary
and monotonous hideousness of the low,
bristly. interminable jungle, which may be
best imagined by picturing to ones self sec
ond hand hair brush several hundred miles
long But next morning some slight compen-
sation awaits us in the bold, rocky bluff of
Winnebah, which thrusts forth its broad.
black breast into the roaring sea as if defying
the white Tipped wrath of the breakers that
come laundering against it, flinging their
great hills of foam mast high into the air,
while from amid the crags four small white
houses peer down into the bowling chaos be-
low like watching children, half pleased aud
half frightened An hour later two or three
long, sloping hills begin to loom through the
breaking mist, and suddenly, as if at the ris-
ing of curtain, the trim white houses of Ac-
era, and the ridge of dark red sandstone upon
which they stand, and the tall feathery palms
that rise above them against the sky line, and
the curving yellow beach below with its ring of
glittering foam, and the wide green uplands
beyond, terminated by the rocky headland
crowned with the low, massive white walls of
Chrstiansborg castle, all start into view at
once
OFF FOR THE SHORE.
The innocent young men who come out here
for the first time with ideas of European
comfort and civilization, thinking they have
nothing to do but Ego ashore at once" are
naturally somewhat startled to find that the
first question is whether they can go ashore
at all. Old stagels talk so coolly of "heavv
beach" that it is rather shock to learn that
this simple phrase implies the breaking upon
the beach of so violent a surf as to involve
the certainty of being capszed and the very
strong probability of being drowned In the
offing lies a steamer which has already waited
here two days with passengers whom she can
not land even in native "surf boat, the only
craft which has any chance of living in such
sea- However, the breakers are a little less
formidable now, and native boatman's YER
dict of "naaf (middling) suffices to encourage
us to venture. The acting governor of
Lagos, the Hon Frederick Evans, for whom
special surf boat has been sent out by the
the treasurer, kindly offers me a seat in it.
so we jump, or rather tumble, into the
dancing boat, which bumps against our knees
one minute and is yards away beneath our
feet the next, and away we go to find out
whether we are to be drowned or not.
UP and down, up and down, with the spray
lashing our faces and tho water gurgling
round our feet, now rising far into the air on
hilltop of seethlng foam, now ph eiring with
dizzy swing into the depths of q shadowv
green valley between two towering walls of
dark water. Every moment it seems as if
we must certainly be overwhelmed by some
huge roller" which comes rushing on. curl
ing Its vast, snowy crests far above our heads
like a falling avalanche. But the monster
always misses us by hairs breadth, for the
gaunt, black scarecrows who sit perched
along our rocking gunwale each with one
loot IN a sort of stirlup OF rope fixed in the
boats side, have no match along the whole
Guinea coast for such work as this.
sCoLDING THE FURIOUS WAVES.
Every stroke of the short, strong paddles
which, instead of being spear pointed like
those OF the Grain coast, or spoon shaped like
those of the Niger, resemble clumsy three
ponts-is accompanied by sharp veil, such
as Mr.. Lowell humorously called "a dogs
ology," and sometimes even by few words
OF untranslatable abuse, hurled with angry
gestures at the furious waves Meanwhile
scores of eager eyes watch our progress both
from the ship and from the shore but except
when suddenly flung up on the crest of a huge
bulow, both we and our boat are completely
invisible from either point And now the
yelling grows louder and wilder as the strokes
of the paddles suddenly quicken, and the boat
rocks to and fro till it appears as if one inch
more must turn her right over, while. as we
swoop upward on the whirl of a mighty wave
the shore and the great pillows that thunder
upon it, hitherto dim and distant, start all az
once into perilous nearness
| We are now running parallel with the line
| of gnashing breakers along the beach. our
only chance being to skirt its terrible outer
| edge till we can seize a favorable moment for
our final rush As the next wave lifts us upon
Its crest we see a swarm of black figures hur-
| rylng down to the shore, ready to drag US to
land when our boat capsizes. Then comes an
| ear-plercmg howl from our crew, the boat is
whirled onward like a stone from a sling.
| there comes tremendous shock, deafenng
crash, an indistinct vision of black faces and
outstretched arms amid q swirl of boiling
foam, and then | feel myself clutched by half
dozen hands at once and borne landward in
kind of complicated free fight" among six
or seven brawny natives. David Ker's West
Africa Letter in New York Times.
French Cemetery.
Members Of the leading French Jewish
families are buried on the right of the en-
trance to Pere Lachaise. The Rothschild
monument is the largest, and in much the
style of that of the great actress, Rachel.